Niccolo Machiavelli on Politics
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Niccolo Machiavelli was a great thinker of the Renaissance who traveled all over Europe studying the political systems of governments. By working for people such as de Medici, Machiavel li developed a science of politics, which he felt should be implemented by the ruling class. In "The Prince," Machiavelli gives a clear and concise analysis of how a political leader might achieve power and maintain it. To succeed in both these areas, leaders must deal with reality pragmatically, even if it conflicts with their morality. Two political leaders who fol lowed Machiavelli's ways to a large extent were Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler. Through these two examples one can evaluate how well Machiavelli's methodology works in the real world. Machiavelli was loyal to the state and not to the Republic. When there was a change in government, he was on the losing side, and thereafter was not allowed to participate in politics. Nonetheless, he continued to analyze political systems carefully and eventually decided to write down his political philosophy. His full intention was for political leaders to read the material so that they could better themselves as politicians. Herbert Butterfield writes, "The essence of his teaching was the promo tion of a more scientific statecraft and he made it clear that he wrote his books in order to produce an actual change in the practice of his day" (16). Italy's government was in chaos at that time, and Machiavelli foresaw that a political
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ttentively waiting to destroy him. It is at this crucial point that the Prince must demonstrate prowess as a leader or else everything will fall apart,, and this in turn would be very costly.
One thing that would definitely improve the Prince's chances is living in the conquered states. The Prince will have the advantage of being able to keep a close tab on the state; hence, the politicaL system will run more smoothly. What usually happens is that, if the Prince appoints delegates to run the state for him, they will most likely take advantage of the situation and become corrupt and make it harder for the Prince to control the political system. It is far better for the Prince to live in the conquered state, since if things begin to go wrong, the Prince will be there to fix the problem immediately. If he does not live in the conquered state, by the time he hears about the problem it will usually be too late to do anything about it; hence, he would lose control over the state. Both Hitler and Napoleon followed these ideas very closely. All of these precau tions will assure more control over the state.
The true control over the state will exist when the people come under the control of the Prince. The Prince should make th
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Approximate Word count = 3747
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)
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